09/17/2025
(Toady One) Work on sieges has been going well. The siegers now dig, deconstruct, and build. These activities can all be turned off individually in the difficulty settings, and their speeds and tendencies can also be adjusted there.

Siegers require picks to dig, do it slowly, and try other means first. Trolls and blind cave ogres have been given new great pick items to improve their digging (they still dig much much slower than dwarves.)

Troll and larger siege engineers can build floors and stairs with blocks. This allows them to move through open air (slowly and vulnerably.) They've been given the ability to build floors under the air space 'occupied' by raised bridge buildings to overcome that gap.

Most monstrous siegers can break down raised bridges, vertical bars, and other blocking buildings, and they can also break through constructed walls and fortifications over time. These actions don't require picks, so creatures like war cave dragons can join in the fun.

Siegers will still run into traps, but can now adjust their path over time if an area gets too hot for any reason.

Sieging armies can now bring skilled units and units with improved equipment, and the commander is also highlighted in the popup message.

Siege work continues through this month and onward.

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09/01/2025
(Toady One) September has a

monthly report

now. A

Future of the Fortress reply

has occurred.

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08/07/2025
(Toady One) Here is a release to continue to stabilize the lua update. There are several regular fixes as well, listed below in the patch notes.

Also, we have some dye improvements for you! You can now mix dyes to produce a variety of colors, and you can tint with dyes to mix the natural color of the material and the color of the dye during the dyeing process. If you make a new world, you'll also have access to some additional outdoor plant dyes. Leather can now be dyed, and there are some new stockpile controls to help you manage all of the new stuff.

If you want to see your dwarves in their new outfits after you've made some shiny clothes, there's the existing preference setting to show their dyed outfits rather than coloring them by profession.

Dye improvements

• Added dye mixing.
• Added dyeing of leather.
• Added partial dyeing of items (tinting).
• Added 60+ new outdoor plant dyes (in new worlds).
• Leather, cloth, armor, and finished goods stockpiles can now filter by color and dye status.
• Plant processing and extraction jobs can have a specific plant set.
• Added natural colors to undyed cloth, thread, and leather descriptions.
• Added dye color to dye descriptions.

Modding and lua updates

• Mods in mod_upload are now sorted (first by ID, then name, then numeric version, then description).
• The "delete" buttons for saves have been replaced with a "Files" button, which, when clicked, gives the previous menu (with a warning that "Delete" is permanent and instant) with an extra button that opens the saves folder (Windows).
• You may click on mods in the various mod lists to open their folder (Windows).
• Added logging for missing PERMITTED_REACTION and PERMITTED_BUILDING objects.
• Reactions associated to entities that use plant reagents will check that the entity has those plants when making powder list (reaction products are not checked.)
• Changed how duplicate object message boxes work.
• Possible improvement to Linux message boxes.
• Added DYER to list of hard-coded buildings permitted for reactions.
• Nightmares no longer have bogeyman polymorph.
• Fixed angel sphere descriptions.
• Fixed attack tweaks and webs on forgotten beasts.
• Fixed necromancer animation missing IT_MANUAL_INPUT.

General updates

• Fixed issue with not all save files being copied to the folder.
• Archers will no longer infinitely flick each frame between archery training and going to some other training if they have no ammo.
• Fixed problem causing some armies to become stuck.
• Announcement settings save properly again.
• Prevented some potential crashes on startup.
• Removes dead/ghostly/caged/sleeping/paralyzed units from the noble queue.
• Makes nobles drop their haul items when they go to a meeting.
• Noble meetings auto-rebuff if meeting data is lost.
• Improved/optimized memory management for armies/army controllers.
• Optimized a particularly slow army loop.
• Fixed crash associated to transformed creatures with fewer body parts than their untransformed body.
• Fixed the "view sheet" hotkey for items/units.
• Fixed placement of titan shrines.
• Made work orders reset their suggested conditions properly when details are changed.
• Added some crash guards and logs for corrupted units/nemesis records.
• Made default embark cloth items dyeable.
• Updated historical nicknames in more places so that legends mode has them.
• Adds a fix for scrolling on laptop trackpads etc.
• Fixed typo in nemesis corruption message.

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2025-08-07: DF 52.03 Released
DF Version 52.03 has been released.

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08/01/2025
(Toady One) The

report for August 2025

is up. There is additionally a

Future of the Fortress reply

.

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07/24/2025
(Toady One)Here's a patch for the last one.

General updates

• Fixed hang on Linux when updating an installed mod the first time.
• Removed the temporary geology variables placement layer/freq/parent from lua to prevent crashes.
• Fixed crash when opening the mod menu after deleting the %appdata% folder.
• Fixed a logic issue where any duplicated raws detected will cause further types of duplicated raws to no longer print.
• Init files are loaded from the game folder first so that updates always apply properly.
• The game now checks for prefs/arena.txt and prefs/colors.txt.
• Added more cases of auto-toggling portable mode if something fails to save.

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2025-07-24: DF 52.02 Released
DF Version 52.02 has been released.

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07/21/2025
(Toady One) This version introduces lua scripting. Right now, this affects procedural object generation, like the forgotten beasts, divine curses (vampires and werebeasts), divine items, necromancers and their lieutenants and experiments, evil weather, and so forth. For the last fifteen years or so, all of these things have been hard-coded in Dwarf Fortress, inaccessible to modders. Now the algorithms and data are available for modding. Scripting will come to encompass more hard-coded features of the game as we proceed.

The relevant scripts establishing the vanilla procedural objects are in data/vanilla/vanilla_procedural. These scripts are structured in the same way as a mod, like the rest of the data/vanilla content, so you can use it as an example for your mods. The mod should have an init.lua file, but whether or not you organize further scripts and folders is up to you (the vanilla 'mod' has a generators folder with several scripts and a few subfolders).

General updates

• Added lua scripting for procedural objects.
• Fixed a crash related to personality testing of soulless creatures during conversation.
• Made the legends mode creature list searchable by species and interaction name.
• Repaired the <> buttons for Z switching after some strange behavior.

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2025-07-21: DF 52.01 Released
DF Version 52.01 has been released.

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07/16/2025
(Toady One) Here's a recent interview on Blind's channel. As usual, they also provided a link to the raw audio. Here's a Tarn Time video about the ranged fixes and such.

Just moved a bit away of where I was in the UK to another Norwichy bit and am settling in. The next thing we're aiming toward is putting up the lua update on the main branch.

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07/02/2025
(Toady One)

July's Report

has been posted.

The Future of the Fortress reply

also.

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06/26/2025
(Toady One) Here's a new update, focusing on ranged weapons and colorful beasts.

We've reworked ranged weapons and archer behavior in preparation for the siege update.

Ranged weapons can now be nocked/loaded, which takes the bulk of the time, and this can be done before firing ('n' in adventure mode.) This allows archers to be a bit safer, since they won't be paralyzed for a long while after firing a shot. The firing force of bows is affected by strength and skill up to a point, whereas crossbows are slower to load but don't require skill and attributes to get their full force. Crossbows are also easier to aim. Loading speeds of all weapons can be improved with skill.

Ranged projectiles (shot or thrown) can be aimed at specific body parts. It's now also harder to hit targets that are farther away. Adventurers, fortress defenders, and enemies all have access to aiming.

In the fortress, your defenders will try to use nearby fortifications, stay away from the enemy, and not use their crossbows as clubs unless very desperate. Enemy archers will also use fortifications if they can get close. Fortress archers will try to reload from the squad ammo pool rather than engage in melee combat.

We've also brought back the ammo and supply management menus and worked out some old issues with them so they should function more smoothly.

The squad's ammo reserves can be set by selecting a single squad, going to their equipment, and selecting the ammo button. Multiple ammo pools can be set by material, amount, and whether they are used for combat or training (or both.) This allows you to eventually separate out metal bolts for combat and wood/bone bolts for training if you choose. Squads can store ammo in chests in a barracks if the barracks is set to hold that squad's equipment to give you some control over where squad bolts end up. Hunters also have an ammo pool you can set under Labor / Standing Orders / Other.

You can also set a squad's food and drink settings from Equip / Supplies. This allows you to set how many rations are carried in their backpack and whether their flask gets alcohol, water, or nothing.

Forgotten beast and titan graphics have been updated. In new worlds, they will now be generated with colors and multiple decorations.

Also, dwarves that die will lose their room assignments properly and a few crashes and other issues have been fixed.

Ranged weapon update

• Stopped ranged soldiers from aggressively entering melee combat when out of ammo.
• Made ranged units step away from close enemies and try to use any nearby fortifications.
• Ranged attackers can aim at specific body parts.
• Added loading and nocking states and actions for ranged weapons.
• Made firing take much less time than loading.
• Differentiated shooting and post-shot recovery times.
• Added weapon-specific attribute and skill effects for aiming and delays.
• Can set ammunition, food, and drink assignments for squads.
• Fixed various issues with extra ammo being kept in quivers and ammo not being picked up.

New graphics

• Added colorful forgotten beasts and titans.

General updates

• Dwarves that meet with misfortune lose their room assignments properly.
• Changed how item deletion works to fix some army crashes.
• Stopped crash from unspecified inorganic dusts.
• Stopped keyboard cursor from skipping large distances when scroll distance is larger than 1.
• Made modded night trolls appear even when no night trolls are generated.
• Made NO_PHYS_ATT_GAIN/RUST add/remove syndromes work properly.
• Stopped requiring music and sound definitions to load saves (makes classic saves compatible again).

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2025-06-26: DF 51.12 Released
DF Version 51.12 has been released.

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06/16/2025
(Toady One) As many of you know, forgotten beasts come in all colors. In our initial graphical release, we made some evocative silhouettes but didn't have time to do them justice. Jacob has been doing a great deal of justice lately.

Forgotten beasts

I've also been moving along with the ranged update. On top of the load/firing delay changes and aiming at specific body parts I did earlier, I've now added some behavioral changes so that ranged soldiers will back away, use fortifications, and generally not be as silly in eagerly leaping from walls and clobbering enemies with their weapons. There's a bit more to do with ammunition selection menus and we'll be nearly ready.

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06/01/2025
(Toady One) The

June Report

is up. Also,

the Future of the Fortress reply

is up.

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05/26/2025
(Toady One) Well, I thought I was going to continue along with siege planning, refreshed and cheerful after coming back from my little week long vacation at the beginning of this month. Instead I got three weeks of fever and infection and misery. Fortunately, I'm now feeling better! So I'll be able to continue on now, but it'll be a bit before I've pulled something together, since I haven't been able to work at all. Putnam has been doing lua stuff, the audio people are starting to take a look at fort mode, and the artists have produced various cool things for sieges in the meantime (siege engines, reinforced walls, etc.) Here's to a better and healthier June!

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05/05/2025
(Toady One) Sorry about the delay. I'm just back from a short trip. Here's

the report for May

. Here's the

monthly answers to the monthly questions

. We're working on siege features for the time being. I started with a first stab at siege planning - forbidden hatches and doors no longer stop invaders, and constructed walls are now vulnerable as well (as promised, you can opt-out.) Next up I'll continue tackling the siege items from the dev page. This will include stronger constructions and other defenses, and more varied invaders. More info as I go!

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04/21/2025
(Toady One)

Fortress mode

• People that leave the map no longer lose their room ownership associations
• Stopped immigrants from losing their religions and some other affiliations
• Added settings to customize keyboard scroll amounts
• Turned off underground humanoid invasions until they are fixed
• Add grazer text to creatures in unit selectors
• Setting somebody to a work detail now properly disables others not in the detail
• Removed ramp spaces above non-ramp constructions if the constructions are placed on ramps

New graphics

• Differentiated metal caps from wood/bone/leather/shell/woven caps in portraits
• Images for weapon items that are artifacts / special materials

General updates

• Stopped certain interaction of ice and constructions from creating void tiles
• Made cave-ins happen more reliably with constructions vs frozen liquids
• Stopped frozen squares revealed under removed constructions from lingering
• Shrubs covered with frozen water no longer lose their species when they unthaw

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2025-04-21: DF 51.11 Released
DF Version 51.11 has been released.

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2025-04-03: DF 51.10 Released
DF Version 51.10 has been released.

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